Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government which non-governmental organisations the Ministers from Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs have met and are due to meet regarding the consultation on the first environment delivery plan.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England is leading the consultation on the first Environmental Delivery Plan and has undertaken any engagement directly related to it.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the underlying tests for all 4,658 surface water bodies in England meet the requirement for good ecological status.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the latest Environment Agency Water Framework Directive classifications, 82% of the individual element assessments (underlying tests) used to understand ecological status in surface waters were assessed as Good or High.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 9 January (HC 102582), when they intend to publish guidance on the circumstances in which Natural England may propose mandatory Environmental Delivery Plans.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) that provide for mandatory levy payments will only be considered in exceptional circumstances. Guidance to Natural England will be issued before such EDPs are developed, and the reasons for mandating payment of the levy will always be clearly set out in the draft plan ahead of consultation.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the locations of (1) the coronation woods, (2) the projects of the coronation living heritage fund, and (3) the micro-woods.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission publishes statistics on new planting of woodland, and trees outside woodland, in England, in the Forestry Commission Key Performance Indicators (copy attached). They plan to publish related geospatial data by the end of 2026-27 on the locations of the new planting wherever considerations such as data quality and data licencing enable this.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding was spent on micro-woods between 2024 and 2026.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra supported a number of tree planting delivery partners between 2024 and 2026. These partners delivered a range of tree planting. This includes the Coronation Living Heritage Fund. This Fund spent £1.1 million on Miyawaki (micro wood) projects. The funding was distributed to local authority delivery partners in November 2023. The planting of these projects took place between November 2023 and March 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of trees planted through the coronation living heritage funds.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission publishes statistics on new planting of woodland, and trees outside woodland, in England. The requested information is available at GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forestry-commission-corporate-plan-performance-indicators. These statistics are reported annually for each financial year with interim updates where data are available after mid-year. The Coronation Living Heritage Fund ran from August to September 2023, with planting taking place between November 2023 and March 2026. The planting figures are:
New planting of trees outside woodland
Financial year | Approximate area equivalent (hectares) | Number of individual trees newly planted (number) |
2025-26 | 3 | 2,000 |
2024-25 | 16 | 13,000 |
2023-24 | 18 | 14,000 |
Total | 37 | 29,000 |
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government drafted and tabled the Environmental Delivery Plans (Appropriate Prioritisation) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/655) when Baroness Hayman of Ullock made a commitment to the House on 17 September 2025 (HL Deb col 2331) that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would take the lead on Environmental Delivery Plans.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is responsible for the enabling powers under which the Environmental Delivery Plans (Appropriate Prioritisation) Regulations 2026 were made and therefore took the lead in bringing forward the regulations. The regulations were developed in close collaboration with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Natural England, reflecting the shared responsibility for implementation of the Nature Restoration Fund and Environmental Delivery Plans.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government which peers were invited to the meetings to discuss (1) the draft Nature Restoration Levy Regulations 2026, and (2) the Environmental Delivery Plans (Appropriate Prioritisation) Regulations 2026, described in paragraph 44 of the 8th Report of Session 2026–27 of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Lord Krebs and Baroness Willis of Summertown were invited to discuss the draft Nature Restoration Levy Regulations 2026 and the Environmental Delivery Plans (Appropriate Prioritisation) Regulations 2026. The invitation reflected their previous engagement on the Nature Restoration Fund during passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 and their expressed interest in the development of the related secondary legislation.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government which Secretary of State will publish statutory guidance on the Nature Restoration Fund, and when.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State for Defra will publish guidance on the Nature Restoration Fund so that it is in place for when the first Environmental Delivery Plan becomes available for developers. Defra will keep the need for further areas of guidance under review.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of misconnections to the sewerage system for (1) homes, and (2) schools.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2019 around 150,000 to 500,000 homes in the UK were estimated to have drain misconnections. Defra does not have numbers of misconnections for schools.
Property owners are legally responsible for resolving misconnected pipework on their property; public misconnections are the responsibility of water companies.
Should misconnections not be resolved, the responsible party can be prosecuted; in some cases, local authorities and water companies can access private property to fix misconnections and then recover their costs from the owner.